Ask him about the newest coin, cryptocurrency exchange, swap, forks, airdrops, or guidance from any number of taxing authorities, and there’s a good chance that it’s on his radar.
It’s a passion that can be traced back to 2014, when Chandan was given bitcoin by Coinbase as a token of appreciation for some integration work that he did as a product manager at Google. He didn’t give it much thought at that time but held on to it anyway.
That all changed in early 2017 when Chandan decided to see how much his bitcoin was worth and how it had performed over time. The price for a Bitcoin hit $1,000 that summer before reaching what was then an all-time high of nearly $20,000 by the end of the year.
By then, Chandan already had a strong interest in fintech.
He dove deeper into the crypto space reading the Bitcoin whitepaper, setting up a Monero full node, building an Ethereum miner and next thing he knew he had 15 different cryptocurrency wallets and exchanges. Chandan discovered the freedom that comes with having full control over assets, which are fully digital. He could even pay international contractors without asking for their bank account information and invasive privacy details, without relying on multiple intermediary financial institutions to carry out payments, and without dealing with foreign transaction fees.
It didn’t take long for Chandan to quit his job at Google and pour all of his energy to a project that would later become CoinTracker.
Trying to stay ahead of all the ever-changing rules, trends, and innovations in cryptocurrency frequently can be exciting, yet exhausting for even the most seasoned investors or traders.
For those people who buy, sell, or simply possess a number of cryptocurrencies at any given time, trying to keep track of them all, monitor the performance of each one, recall when transactions took place, and get the documentation they need to comply with local tax regulations can be a huge hassle.
It’s a real-life struggle that eventually inspired Chandan to create CoinTracker with Jon Lerner, the company’s CEO.
At its core, CoinTracker is an all-in-one platform that enables traders and investors around the world to track all of their cryptocurrency transactions, view their portfolio holdings, and see the market value for each one.
Savvy investors and traders can even use performance data for individual investments to make informed trades and take advantage of money-saving, tax-harvesting strategies.
Native integrations with more than 300 cryptocurrency exchanges and wallets, including Coinbase, Gemini, Ledger, Exodus, and Binance, ensure that investment details are updated automatically in real time. CoinTracker also supports more than 8,000 cryptocurrencies, so collating all of your investments into a single place is a cinch.
As an all-in-one solution, CoinTracker leverages all of this collected investment data to automatically produce accurate tax reports that show capital gains or losses.
When CoinTracker was just getting off the ground, Chandan recalled the need to run a tight ship on a lean budget: “We had no money, we were spending no money, and we were just doing our corporate bookkeeping manually. I honestly didn’t really know what bookkeeping was. We had a spreadsheet where we kept a list of all of our expenses.”
Although this DIY-approach to bookkeeping worked for about a year and a half, the CoinTracker’s finances became a little more complicated once employees were hired.
Between paying employees and keeping tabs on even more expenses over time, it became increasingly difficult for Chandan to mind the company’s books.
“It was just getting crazy to manage it myself. I had a business to run. The last thing I wanted to spend my time on was bookkeeping. Surely someone has solved this problem.”
After connecting and chatting with Pilot CEO and Co-Founder Waseem Daher, it didn’t take Chandan long to realize that a little bit of outside help could go a long way for CoinTracker.
It became clear that we needed some kind of bookkeeping software so we could focus on the thing we do well and stop spending a lot of time on things that we don’t have any expertise in doing.
At first, Chandan thought he could find a company or software solution that could provide the same bookkeeping and tax preparation services as Pilot at a lower price.
“I was very resistant to sign up for Pilot,” Chandan recalled. “I was like, “I really don’t want to do this. It seems like it’s too early for us, and it’s a waste.”
But a culmination of at least two events eventually convinced him to bite the bullet and at least give Pilot a try:
After doing some research and evaluating all of his options, Chandan narrowed his search for a startup bookkeeper and tax provider to two companies.
In his own words, here are the four key reasons that convinced Chandan to choose Pilot as CoinTracker’s bookkeeping and tax provider of choice:
In the years since then, Chandan — and CoinTracker — have found even more reasons to trust Pilot with their tax and bookkeeping needs:
All things considered, Chandan says there’s a simple reason why Pilot is just the right fit for CoinTracker: “It just works. It saves us time and gets the job done.”
So, looking back on it now, what does Chandan think about his decision to hire Pilot?
“It’s a no brainer. I haven’t looked back. Can’t believe we didn’t sign up sooner.”
CoinTracker is a portfolio and tax manager for cryptocurrency that enables seamless cryptocurrency portfolio tracking and tax compliance.